Getting Ready for Christmas

Christmas seems to have snuck up on me this year. I guess with life being so incredibly crazy, my usual planning went out the window. Its December 9 and I have yet to do any Christmas shopping.

Do you know how FREAKING hard it is to shop with a baby? SOOOOO much work!

Anywho, we have done some preparation around here. Aria had a photo shoot one night in her Christmas outfit so we could get just the right picture for the Christmas card. It was soo fun and she was cracking me up.

We also got all of the decorating done on December 1st. We still haven't compromised on trees so we have a fake one for me that gets decorated all fancy and a real one for Jeff that gets decorated with all of our ornaments from when we were growing up. We took a leap this year in selecting our real tree. On the word of my boss that the trees were good we went to Costco. The tree was $42 and we had to go pick it up out of a semi in the parking lot. This is what we found:

 I was really nervous and then we cut all of the strings off. And it was perfect.

Now here's my to do list over the next 10 days so we can be ready to head home for California:
1. Christmas Shopping
2. Prepare Neighbor Gifts
3. Mail Christmas Cards
4. Get Aria her first Christmas Dress
5. Pack up the Fam
6. Drive home for a WEEK with the inlaws and the BFF!!!!!

Catch Up: Halloween

Halloween was really fun this year! We had soo many kids come to the house and all of us got dressed up! Aria was a giraffe, Jeff a fighter pilot, and I was a greek goddess. Here are some pics of the fam:

I also gave in and carved a pumpkin (even tho I hate it...Jeff pulled all the guts out for me). I did a pretty sweet job.

Our Trip to the Zoo

My choice for what to do for my birthday this year was to go to the zoo. I can't even remember the last time I went to a zoo. We loaded up the car and headed up to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake. It was pretty cool. They had all kinda of animals but my favorites were the elephants, the giraffes, and the tigers.

Here are some pictures from the day.

Twenty Six

Happy Birthday to Me!

As many of you know, being an only child, long ago, was instituted the birthday week. All week long we celebrate with birthday festivities and cake. It has all worked seemingly well until this year. Twenty six. It feels...odd. Not exciting, not scary, not fun, but not boring. Its just there.

At twenty six I feel like I'm in a good place. I have a beautiful little girl, I got married in the temple to the love of my life, I own a home, I've been in a job I really like for over 4 years, and I'm working on my master's degree. It seems that somehow, everything has just come together.

I think a birthday is a good time to reflect on things you've done, things you wish you could have done different or better. For me, I'm good where I'm at. I'm excited for things to come.

This birthday was low key and I liked it. My little girl actually woke up to love on me before work, blasted some Destiny's Child on the way to work, had people sing to me and wish me a many happy of birthdays at work (some were forced...its ok), and came home to a sweet husband that let have french toast for dinner!! Thank you to everyone who made this birthday special to me.

4 Month Checkup

Can you believe my little chunk is 4 months - time is flying by and we are having fun!

Today Aria had her 4 month checkup with the DR. She weighed in at 14lbs (50th percentile), length basically 26 inches (90th percentile), and head somewhere in the 75th percentile. Basically she is skinny and long (a little like the madre). I'm loving this little munchkin more and more every day. No matter what happens during the day, that little face at dinner or bath time just melts away the rest of the day and none of it really matters.

Here are some pictures of what we have been up to lately.

Learning to like being on our tummies and seeing if our entire fist can fit in the mouth.

 Hanging out in the backyard watching the dog and the dad be crazy!

 Crashed out on the couch but still incredibly stylish.

 

And my very first time at Seven Peaks. It was warm, I refused a shirt. Mom and Dad took me in the lazy river...still undecided how I feel about it. The pool for kids my size was so much warmer ;-)

Aria's Baby Blessing

I know this post in about a month delayed...but we've been busy!

Aria was blessed on July 1 and it was really one of the most special days I will ever remember. Her dad had been preparing all week and was so nervous about giving the blessing in front of the whole ward...in fact he looked exactly like he did right before he proposed.

I had been out shopping for a dress all week, but nothing stood out to me. They all sort of looked like mini-wedding dresses which was not the look I was really going for. Finally, on the morning of the blessing, my mom found my blessing dress tucked away in some secret hiding place. It was perfect!

 Jeff gave Aria the most beautiful blessing. It was hard not to cry. He even got his best friend, Steve, to tear up a little. What a spiritual moment!

After the blessing, we invited everyone that came (about 35 people!!!) over to the house to hang out and have some food. We were pretty bad about taking pictures of everyone but Kathy, Jeff's mom, got some good pictures of the Pleasanton crew.

 

The food ended up being FANTASTIC. I made appetizers and desserts. My favorite appetizer was  cucumber cups filled with poppy seed chicken salad (the whole foods recipe). And my favorite dessert was oreos dipped in pink chocolate.

Overall, it was an amazing day! Such a great experience for our little family of 3.

Summer Vaca - Destination: CALI

Before I head back to work, Jeff and I were able to squeeze in a summer vacation back home in California. Jeff's brother Nick was getting married and so we packed up the car, the baby, and the dog and headed out for a long, overnight drive back to the bay.

We spent the first day just decompressing and getting the baby adjusted at Jeff's parents house in Pleasanton. On Friday, we reloaded the car and headed down the Santa Cruz to set up for the wedding and have a little fun. Jeff's parents rented a house about 2 blocks from the beach for all of us to stay in so we wouldn't have to commute back and forth to Pleasanton over the next 3 days. The house was awesome (unfortunately I have no pictures of it) with all windows looking into a courtyard. All but one of the bedrooms opened up with a sliding glass door to the backyard. It was beautiful. This was the beach - just a two minute walk from the house.

 

On Friday night, we decided to head down to the Santa Cruz Board Walk. It was a little chilly, but very VERY fun!

 

Saturday was the day of the wedding celebration and it was so busy. The wedding was beautiful!

 Aria enjoyed being the center of attention for  most of the night. People couldn't believe how good she was - she didn't cry at all during the night. (But let me tell you, when we got in the car to go home she let out a tantrum to the proportion that I had never seen before!!!)

The day after the wedding I convinced the family to go to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium. I had never been before and I thought it would be super fun to take Aria.

The aquarium is located in the old Monterrey Cannery. Jeff got to pulled the whistle that used to sound through the town to call the workers to the cannery when a large load of fish came in. The sign said the whistle would sound night or day at any time and each cannery along the row had a different whistle.

Aria LOVES to rock her stunner shades.

There were lots of cool things to see:

 If you can't tell, the seahorses were my favorite thing. They had this special exhibit called, "The Secret Life of Seahorses." It was sooooooo cool.

Aria had her first taste of people food...ice cream of course and she was ALL ABOUT IT.

On Monday, we headed back to Pleasanton to see some friends before I headed off to Arizona for school. Its sooo funny to have friends with babies. It is such a wonder to me that we are moms now.

The last thing we packed in was a trip to the A's game. Jeff's family had sent Aria all of these little A's onesies and I know she had to show them off at a game. Jeff was so proud! I had to add the headband so she didn't look like a boy.

It was a little cold so I had to bundle her up. My mom joined us Tuesday night because she was coming with me to Arizona to watch the little one while I start my Master's program. More on that to come.